15,000 ad-hoc staff for Osun guber election

The conduct of governorship election in Osun state is gathering momentum as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recruits 15,000 ad-hoc staff for the Sept. 22 exercise.

The election which is slated for September 22 has two highly rated political parties contending – ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mr Olusegun Agbaje, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun, told a stakeholders meeting on Thursday that the commission would do everything possible to conduct a free and fair election in the state.

He said the commission had engaged different ad-hoc staff sources from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), federal establishments and tertiary institutions in the state.

‘‘As we speak, we have sourced over 90 per cent of the ad-hoc staff that would participate in the conduct of the election.

‘‘NYSC management promised us over 8,000 of their youth corps, which will form the large chunk of our ad-hoc staff.

‘‘The Obafemi Awolowo University has provided us with 3,000 personnel/students, while Federal Polytechnic, Ede has assured us of 2,000 personnel plus students out which 1,500 has been received.

‘‘The over 70 other federal establishments in the state would also be providing us with 1,000 of their members who will participate in the conduct of the election,’’ he said.

Agbaje, however, implored the 48 political parties that would take part in the election to advise the electorate to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) for the election.

He said the commission had been carrying out voter education and public enlightenment campaigns, stressing that many PVCs were yet to be collected by registered voters.

He said about 540,658 PVCs were still with the commission and enjoined voters in the state to come out and collect their PVCs. (NAN)